Dancing backwards by Salley Vickers

In a nutshell, this is a book about a woman’s journey to understand who she once was. Set on board a cruise liner, which in itself supplies an interesting background, the story involves a number of disparate characters who each help her towards the resolution she has so far been denied. There are flashbacks to her life in the Sixties when she was an undergraduate at Cambridge University and where she initially met the other main characters, so that you have two stories going on at the same time, a device which can be irritating unless well done, as here. Not action packed or filled with sex or violence, but a thoughtful and satisfying read, somewhat similar to Anita Brookner or Jane Austen.

AS